Slow start to new thriller

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34156, 18 May 1976, Page 4

Slow start to new thriller

(By KEVIN McMENAMIN)

N. J. Crisp has written some excellent television series, and for this reason his thriller serial, “Dangerous Knowledge,” which began from TV2 on Sunday night, commanded attention. However, it got off to a slow start.

For one thing the viewer was given insufficient information to even guess at what the plot is all about and apart from the fact that he has a good thirst we learnt only that. the hero, John Gregson, is an insurance agent with a part-time job and an ex-wife whose home he sometimes shares.

It may also be felt that Gregson is getting a little past secret agent — if that’s

what he is — roles, although he does possess a nonchalant air that could be more disarming than a smack in the teeth.

The first episode produced little more than Gregson being chased by a couple of well-dressed — which was possibly why they were said to not look like policemen — thugs bent on doing him a mischief. Hopefully, next week we will discover why. At least, he had the good sense to enlist the aid of a girl, who, if not a ravishing beauty, was blessed with a civil servant father who owns a cabin cruiser. This, thankfully, was explained: he has independent means.

“The Olympiad” continues to be an engrossing programme and this time its look at athletes who beat the odds to achieve greatness, even if they did not always win, captured much of what the Games are all about. There are few more endearing stories in Olympic Games lore than that of the Jamaican runner, Herb McKenley, who after five gallant attempts finally won a gold medal at the sixth. The piecing together of his story was a moving account of determination realising a dream.

The old film clips in themselves make interesting viewing. Imagine the athletes of today being asked to run on the surfaces that were used early this century and fancy a sprint being filmed only from a head-on position. It is not only times that have improved. If the programme did have a fault it would be a narration that sounded rather old fashioned and sometimes strove a little too hard for dramatic effect. It was also irritating to consistently hear the word “run” tagged on to every track event. The 5000 m run and the 10,00vm run are pleonastic. * * *

The look by “Seven Days” at matrimonial agencies and the people who patronise them was quite good, but something more in the Brian Edwards line might have been better.

A good deal of finesse, plus a certain amount of cheek was required to make inroads into such a delicate subject and one can only applaud the bravery of the two women who allowed their searches tot husbands to be laid bare on the screen.

The programme carefully presented the case for people who have difficulty finding a partner, but only touched on the trauma they endure in putting themselves in the hands of a marriage broker for what was described as their "last chance.” A few more case histories, preferably with happy endings, might have helped.

The interviewer, lan Fraser, was perhaps a trifle sombre in his approach, particularly when talking to a woman who readily acknowledged the funny side to her predicament. In fact, the camera once caught Fraser looking so sad that he could have been wondering if it

was not time he returned to his smoke stack. The Sunday night plays from TVI provide some of the television highlights of the week and “The Breaking of Colonel Keyser” was one of those. It was a fascinating study of two men, one a battalion commander with psychopathic tendencies and the other a corporal who could not bring himself to shoot a stray dog. It was. not a unique storyline, but one pursued objectively enough to underline the dangers of command and how the feelings of the individual capnot be submerged, not even by Queen’s Regulations. The play’s most telling observation was towards the end when it was contended that in battle the unbalanced Colonel might be a great success. Or, countered another speaker, a tragic failure. Therein lies food for thought.